On Friday morning, the state-run NNA revealed a large increase in the number of passengers at the Beirut Airport for the first half of 2022.
2,568,797 passengers were recorded as of June 2022 compared to 1,444,502 in June 2021.
It is an increase of 77,83%, however, it is still lower than the pre-pandemic numbers. It is a decline of 35% compared to the first half of 2019 when the number of passengers reached 4,004,523.
It is reported that Rafic Hariri International Airport is receiving daily around 30,000 passenger movements, of which around 19,000 are arrivals to Lebanon, a number much higher than what the Minister of Tourism, Walid Nassar, was previously anticipating (between 10,000 and 12,000).
Lebanon is expected to gain more than $3 billion from the promising tourism this summer, which will give the struggling Lebanese economy a boost amid the economic crisis and the effects of the pandemic.
A few weeks ago, the construction of a new $70 million airport terminal was announced. This will increase the capacity of Beirut Airport from 8 million passengers to 20 million by 2030.
Related: Beirut Airport Is Seeing An Increase In Tourist Traffic By The Day
